les masque
by margaretann96
Summary: Already knowing what will happen, will she stop it or will she push the progress along? Alone Anna will have to try and change the course of time but of what cost to her?
1. Chapter 1

Blood was flowing out of the gashes in my sides. I ran with my bag and the few valuables that I kept hidden in my skirts. I was scared out of my wits, why had he turned to violence when I denied him? As I climbed onto the subway that was heading from here to the next stop near an opera house wherever that was it would be a new life and a new start.

I pulled my first skirt up and pulled out my copy of Phantom by Susan Kay and started reading, Erik had been my companion for all the rough times, and surely reading would soothe me now. Why had Nate of all people turned violent, and because of something that I had already told him would never be happening unless he decided to make or relationship into a marriage.

All he wanted was sex. I had promised myself, God and my parents that I would remain 'whole' until after marriage. He had tried to take what he wanted from me forcefully when I wouldn't give it to him by my free will.

Why else would anyone want the plain, dork with the long dresses and the modest hair styles. Always standing out at social events, always in the way, could only ever excel in music and other arts or educations. I was so stupid to think that Nate actually loved me, that I actually loved him. It was fake, it always was, guys saw the looks but when they saw the person, they were afraid of how different I was, how I could influence anyone.

It always made me love the story that I had all but memorized. I suddenly knew where I was going, I was going to the opera house that several authors had told about in the stories that made Erik famous. I was going to face my dreams and my fears. All in one leap, I was going to enjoy this challenge.

I woke to somebody, I don't know who, tapping me on the shoulder and telling me this was my stop. I nodded to them and walked off the train clutching my ballet shoes tightly as I walked into the Opera Populaire.

"…and that concludes the auditions for this month's production." I stayed in the shadows, that was the last of the auditions? How was I supposed to do anything now? How was I supposed to survive? I'm horrible at cleaning my own room, how am I supposed to help clean? I burn teabags, cooking is out of the question.

I walked up into box 5. No one had noticed me yet, good, if I couldn't get a part I would have to be my own version of Erik until I could secure a job…. I stood up, if I was to survive as Erik, I would have to find his lair, and the passageways to it, and how to get around the traps.

I had been walking down the hall in the shadows, just as he would have. I found my way to the diva's room and quietly opened the door. Standing across from the door was a beautiful mirror, golden trim with mahogany accents, carved as if it had been ordered for God himself.

I felt the edges of the beautiful mirror and found the latch, slipping inside just as I heard the door I had just entered the Diva's room through. The women that they had for the Prima Donna was horrible in looks and singing. They here at the opera house were not in danger of rats or any other vermin. Her voice had probably caused them enough pain to run them away.

I heard the woman screech something I couldn't make out but I was going down, down once more… I smiled and then cried at this thought because of what really had taken place here. What really happened… The walls seemed to whisper to me, telling me the story that I already knew so well, but not at all.

I made my way around until I came to the lake that separated me from the room that I had dreamed and fantasized about. It was partly ruined and some of the tapestries were molded. But the organ and the candles were still there.

I walked to where Christine's room would have been, and opened the door. A gust of musty air rushed at me through the door. Gagging I stepped inside, everything was still perfect. Thank god for that, I would get to wreck havoc on it if I got a part next month. I hated that trollop. She was the reason that I loved the story so much. The pain of it always made me want to whip her, but it drew me in. reminded me that in real life there was no happy ending for those who were not beautiful enough. Not pretty.

His obsession with this girl was obvious, and any other girl would have realized how much he cared. But the one girl that he chooses to care for is scared of the depth of his affection. Leave it to a shallow girl to leave love when she finds it.

I lay on the bed thinking about what had happened in the past 24 hours, I had been assaulted, couldn't find work, and last but not least, was in the phantom's lair. The last thing was a good thing but it still needed to be added to the list of impossible things.

**So, how'd you like it? **_**Read and review-A.A.**_** You will curse the day you did not do all that the author asked of you! **


	2. Deal

"Who are you?" I opened my eyes to find that a masked man was standing over me.

"Anna Goldcrest." I closed them and flopped down, I didn't want to deal with delusions at the moment. He started tapping me, I wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep. I sat up and pulled my bag out of my skirt, I opened the .44 and checked to see how much ammo I had brought with me. I had about sixty rounds of it-

"What are you doing?" I raised an eyebrow, what did it look like I was doing? I was checking my concealed carry weapon.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" At this sarcastic remark he raised the one eyebrow that I could see, his other was still hidden in the mask. Were delusions supposed to be this demanding? Or was it just my mind that made them that way? I sighed "I'm cleaning my handgun, I will then put my ammo into easy-loaders and then I will put my bag back under my skirt and I will go and take your job. Good day, Erik." With that I moved to go past him but he gripped my arm tightly.

"How did you know my name?" He wasn't a hallucination, hallucinations don't grab arms. Well they don't actually hold you to a place. I composed myself and looked at him in an way that told him that I had an attitude.

"What year is this?" he looked at me as though I was crazy. I probably was.

"1849, how did you know my name?" Though I couldn't see his face I could hear that he said this through gritted teeth. It wasn't the most pleasant response that he could have answered but, with him finding an intruder in a room specially prepared for his 'beloved', he was bound to be ticked off.

"I'm good at reading people and their names, just by knowing somebody for a few minutes I can tell their name and some personal information about them." I could tell that he knew that it was a lie but he really didn't want to know what the truth was.

"Now you are to get out of my house before I put you out the back door." He started pushing me towards the cave entrance and almost into the lake. I spun on him and held him at gunpoint.

"My friend, take this as a lesson to you, never push someone towards water while their holding a gun, they might spin on you as I have and if they didn't particularly like you, they might kill you." He laughed at the end of my dialogue and looked straight into my eyes. The edges of my eyes went black and it grew into the center, I hoped to G-d that he would have the decency to not take anything from my skirt, least of all my Smith, least of all my Smith. The black crept to the center of my eye and I felt consciousness slipping from me.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

I awoke in the dorm full of sleeping girls, I had a pair of Pointe shoes that I had hidden among my skirts, along with some other necessities, I could never grasp why anyone would need a hoop when you could carry so much and get the same look. I stood up and pulled the leotard and tights out, I grabbed the nylon skirt and my GM's . G-d I was lucky that I always had those with me. They would last a minimum of 5 years and I wasn't going to grow anymore. At least I hope not, 6 foot was really tall, I didn't want to be the tallest woman alive.

I seemed to remember that I hadn't walked here myself and I knew that I wasn't under Erik's care, he already had an… I shouldn't think of such things, it wasn't polite, I didn't even know the girl and I had an unbidden hate of her, it made no sense. I shouldn't be jealous the blasted man had…

OH, MY G-D. Where was my Smith! He took my freaking gun, I was going to strangle him. How could he take the freaking gun? How could he? I was going to have to pay a visit to everyone's favorite phantom. He is so stupid if he thinks that I am defenseless without my gun. He's so stupid if he actually believes that. He is so in for it.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

I slipped through the mirror in Christine's newly obtained room, this was going to be fun. I had brought supplies with me. I was dressed in a pair of my dad's jeans, a dress shirt and my combat boots. I was absolutely sure that he wouldn't know who was there even if he somehow had some type of security system that I couldn't get past.

As if that would ever happen, I had been trusted with more serious things, much more so serious. What could possibly be more important than the last possession that my father had ever got me. He was going to pay for taking that, he was such a man, thought that one little threat, one instant of knowing his name was enough for me to excuse him to take my prized possession, he better think again.

It was amazingly dark in the hallway, I couldn't see a thing. I took the mini-flashlight from my pocket, I clicked the little button and the noise that it made resounded for what seemed like an eternity. I waited for a few strenuous moments before deciding that no one had seen or heard me.

Then drawing on all of my grace and agility, I slunk down the passageway against the wall, I knew that any traps that could be there would be in the middle and would be set for fools, there had to be some way that Erik could get around without hurting himself or anyone else that he chose to bring down to his lair.

I walked down the hallway and into the lake, it was GD cold but I wasn't going to complain if I could get my Smith back. I made my way into the lair and saw that nobody was there. Good. This would all go easier without distraction. I saw pictures of Christine and Meg, obviously more of Christine. The room was basically a shrine to her, it was disgusting.

I saw the gun lying on the floor right where I left it. G-d doesn't he understand that this could be useful to him and it wouldn't be if he just let it rust to the floor. He was officially an idiot; he's in love with an airhead, leaves guns lying out in the open and…. I saw the many swords that were hanging on the wall, covering part of the room. I stepped as gracefully as I could up onto the floor that was by the wall decorated by swords.

I reached forward to touch the glossy finish on the swords, to say in a matter of words, they were beautiful. Simply wonderful, the engravings on the handle were intricately done and the blade was no different.

I was leaning over to closer inspect another of the hundreds that were there when I felt something cold touch my back with the lightest of pressure.

"Don't move and I won't be forced to hurt you." I inwardly groaned I had been so caught up in the beauty that he had surrounded himself in that I hadn't noticed that he had walked in. I was so- "Boy, I thought I told you not to come down here again or I would stick you in the chamber." My face grew hot and my hand gripped the grip of the handgun that I had retrieved earlier.

I quickly lashed out and grabbed one of the plainer swords off the wall, hopefully I was as good at fencing now as I was a year ago. I was furious, he thought me a boy? A flipping boy?!?! I stabbed relentlessly at him not giving him a chance at the offense. During this he must have been planning because as I went in again he flipped his wrist and knocked my sword out of my hand. He began walking towards me. I took the handgun out of my holster and held it at arm's length pointed straight at his head.

"Don't make a move. Drop the weapons that you have on you and yes I mean the lasso too. You will not be hanging me today." I knew by the look on his face that he just realized that I was a girl. "Yes and don't get any ideas about me being soft just for the fact that I am a woman. You have made a grievous mistake by judging me by appearance. I could shoot your head off right now and not fell a bit of regret. You'll end up shooting yourself after Don Juan anyways. Maybe I'd be doing you a favor.

"I don't know, maybe I shouldn't shoot you, maybe it would be better to let you suffer. I might just mess up more for you. You have greatly insulted me sir. Greatly insulted me. Do you realize that I might have come here because I wanted to escape people that thought of me as one of the boys? " His eyes were now wide with shock, realizing who I was.

"You found your way down again." He was shocked. I could tell by the look on his face. "Why did you come back?" He thought I came back to be his friend? Ha that was a laugh. Why would I come down to visit some snob that stole my gun? Of course my Smith was most important. I wouldn't have survived to get to the future Opera Populaire without it.

"You stole my gun." I said it simply. His face that I could see grew flustered and he rose his hand as if to strike me. I grabbed his wrist and stopped him. "Do that and I will shoot," reminding him of his sticky situation. "I don't really want to kill you, to waste your genius and your…" I was about to say good looks but, that was only my opinion, you could tell that from the book. Christine had been stupid enough to only think of his face.

"My what?" he caught that. This was scary what was I supposed to tell him? Oh, I think your handsome and I don't really care what you look like under the mask because I have already seen much worse? I couldn't say anything.

"Are you daft, I said that I didn't want to kill you because of your genius? I just said that as plainly as I could and you ask me what?"

"You have lowered your weapon. As have I, that counts as some sort of trust. Now what were you trying to say after that, you cut yourself off." I could tell that he would keep prodding me about this if I gave him a chance to, which wasn't going to happen.

"I don't remember. Now, how am I supposed to answer if I don't remember after your lengthy speech?" he laughed at that and my eyes widened, did he just laugh?

"Lengthy, you have no idea girl. You haven't been here long have you?" His voice just registered, it was the same as it was in the movie. Beautifully deep and powerful.

"No, I haven't even been in this year long, but that's another story. You do want Christine to love you right?" He looked at me confusedly and nodded, acting as if this was some great secret and no one was to actually know about it. Especially someone as new as I was, not knowing the stories the way that the ballet girls told it. So different, as if he had told it himself, I wonder if he was alive in 2008. Most likely not but.

"Yes." He sheepishly answered and looked down at his gloved hands.

"You can't get her to love you by threatening the people that just happen to know your name. You need to be gentle. Don't yell. And most of all, when she starts singing, 'What was the shape in the shadows, whose is the face in the mask?' run out of the room like your being chased by the Devil himself." He raised an eyebrow.

"How do I know that you are saying something that would make her hate me?"

"Give me a room here and I will tell you anything you want to know about girls and winning them."

He hesitated and I put my hand out to shake his on the deal. He shook it.

"We're gonna be good friends."

**Confused much yet? It will get better. ****RSD**


End file.
